o' captions made possible by the u.s. department of education and central city productions, inc. this week on a special edition of "our world with black enterprise" we're at the entrepreneur es conference. coming up, a pilar in the african-american community for more than half a century and still going strong. i sit down with the reverend jesse jackson. plus, a panel of republicans refuses to sway on their position. finally, how one man engineered the perfect game plan. that's what's going on in "our world" up next.

for six decades the reverend jesse jackson has been on the front lines in the struggle for freedom and justice, keeping hope alive for millions around the world. >> it was parents and teachers join hands together, children have a foundation! >> i sat down with rev vend

jackson to talk about his journey and where he's headed next. good to see you. >> god to see you, sir. >> how did you get involved in this struggle for freedom, become such a central part of this? >> in the 1960s, i wanted to use a public library and could not use it. i tried and use a public library and i really never stopped fighting. before then, i was existing. at some point, you either imitate the system, trying to get a job and like it and be an extension of it or you adjust to it or you resist. and i learned as a young naacp youth activist and then scrc, i learned to resist. i found gratification and joy in resisting, not imitating the system or adjusting to it. >> you came under the leadership and the mentorship of dr. martin luther king, as well, i understand. >> and jim palmer. i was blessed to be -- a frat

brother. i was in the fraternity. so i began to get access in that situation. but that was that, and then in north carolina, jim palmer was a huge force in that time. i've been blessed to be around men and women of stature. marian wright edelman. these persons have had great impact on my life. >> what did you learn from dr. king, in particular, because your legacy is so intricately tied to dr. king's. you were literally standing on the balcony. >> i was on the ground. we were talking to each other. >> to be that close to him not just at that moment but over the course of those years u what were the big lessons you learned from dr. king? >> oh, boy. one i think is intellectual preparation. he was a serious scholar.

you think of him, he did a debate on the negro and the constitution at age 14. >> . he finished at 19. he was a furious scholar. he read at least one fiction an nonfiction book a week. i mean, he was as scholarly as he was activist. and so i'm not bad as a scholar, but i certainly appreciate the need to keep researching the great history of our time. i think i got something from him. >> i think you got a whole lot of that. in 1984 and in 1988, you ran for president of the united states. a serious presidential run. >> we learned a lot in that first campaign. we found out something that the popular vote and the delegates was a disconnect and that -- because you had to have a high

ratio to become the delegate and win all p. i get 48% and you get 52%, winner take all. that was bad math. >> right. >> we changed that law. by '88 we got 1,220 delegates for all practical purposes. >> won 13 states, right? >> but the significance of that for barack obama, when he ran in 2008, hillary clinton won -- she won texas, california, ohio, pennsylvania, maryland. on the winner take all, she should have been the winner. we changed the rules, and we democratized democracy and laid the groundwork. i feel so good about that. the run, we learned a lot. we inspired people to run for office at every level. somewhere along the way, changing the rules plus inspiration was a big factor to where we are today. and the stakes this year, frankly, are incredibly higher. we need him to win.

>> let me ask you one question about what you just said. you talked about how your run set the table for other things. you didn't win the presidency, but you ran '84, you won in '88, wilder wins in '89 as governor. it seem to me there's a concrete -- you also changed the rules. >> the black vote changed the equation. it changed the thinking. just like asking why can't women get on the ticket, like ferraro? if i can do that, why can't other people do it? the whole idea was to be a capitalist for change, to be some ray of hope for tomorrow. when i first ran the big idea was could a black run, should a black run, we just felt all that. but the time 2008 came around, we were knocking down the walls to build the surrender!

keep hope alive! keep hope alive! >> where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people -- yes, we can. thank you. god bless you. and may god bless the united states of america. >> that was on election night. i saw you standing out with the people watching president obama give his presidential acceptance speech. and you were crying. >> there was a lot going on, you know. we were in that same grant park, across the street from where we are, 40 years before then, '68, facing tear gas. so that nigh it was -- it was both the moment and the memory. the moment was we had won something real big that night. and that was a joy of victory. i mean, given -- my father couldn't vote. fought in world war ii.

my parents couldn't vote. to watch all the stuff we had been through, the '60s, changing the rule, all that stuff led to a victory. >> if you had to give one piece of advice to president obama, what would it be? >> stay true to your convictions. at the end of the day, that's what you can sleep with. i think he wrestles with that. >> one of the things i'm hearing in your words is responsibility. you know, people often accuse civil rights leaders, particularly you, of only criticizinging the system, only blaming the white man, only blaming the government. >> what's curious abthat is we are assuming responsibility for the supreme court decision. their responsibility was to suppress us. ours was to get free. we won. the initial action to end legal apartheid was our responsibility. the montgomery bus boycott was wisdom and responsibility. the students then, that was responsibility. the voting rights act was responsible. we have changed the voting rights act.

all these acts. because we assume responsibility for social change. and we were finding white oppression, whether the state laws in alabama or national laws or unenforced laws. fighting to free south africa. we never stopped the civil responsibility. but it's always against a head wind of the occupier trending on our basic rights. >> how do you think about that in relation to what a lot of people say, which is that the civil rights era is over, struggle for civil rights is over? you would often say back in the civil rights days, when they talk about you. >> though who think it over, a, never fought in it -- >> how do you deal with the pain of constantly being criticized, the constant attacks, the constant challenges to your authorities? >> well, you have to process it, and champions live with pain. you fall down sometimes, you're knocked down, you get up again because you realize the ground is no mace for a champion. and you keep fighting and you fight until there's no more fight in you. and the struggle continues.

>> still to come, we sit down with a panel of experts from the right wing. >> when you look at the number-one thing, ill's this economy, and that is where he gets a failing mark. to cut out arthritis pain.

[ male announcer new icy hot arthritis lotion. powerful encapsulated menthol gets icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. power past pain. welcome back to "our world with black enterprise." the 2012 presidential elections are right around the corner. we sit down with a panel of republicans who cast their ballot on how it will play out. joining me are lynnny mcallister, senior contributor

to politics 365, marshall white, project manager and senior consultant, and guy regehr, senior vice president. thank you all so much for being here. lydia, i'm going to start with you. an interesting moment, not official yet, but mitt romney is for all intents and purposes the republican nominee for president. how does that make you feel? how do you feel about that nomination? >> it's a mix because romney wasn't necessarily saying the types of things that african-american republicans really liked on the primary process. if you look at some of the things that newt gingrich said or rick santorum, they stepped in some holes. they also tried to direct some of the issues that african-american voters needed to have addressed in regards to schools, in regards to jobs and the like. >> what are the things that republican voters, and particularly black republican voters, want? what are the issues that matter? and what kind of stance do you want your president to take on? >> what i'd like to see more out of mitt romney, particularly for the black community, is, you know, he's got an incredible professional background that i think some have looked at negatively. he's got to play that up. he's a great operator.

he's proven to be a great operator. where we are fiscally weather jobs and the economy, he needs to come out and say this is what i've done that works. people need to hear that because it filters down to jobs, which african-americans care act. >> when you all look at the sweep of president obama's accomplishments, universal health care, when we look at hiv-aids domestically, incredibly ambitious and successful agenda, whether or not you agreed with it, he handled don't ask, don't tell in the military. when you look at foreign policy, you see osama bin laden was killed under president obama, not under president bush. if you happen to agree with the execution of gadhafi in libya, you saw that under obama, not bush. the withdrawal of troops from iraq, under obama, not bush. you begin to see a dialdown in afghanistan, under obama, not bush. it seems to me even if you don't agree with all this positive, it's sort of difficult for me to imagine that this wasn't a successful presidency. >> well, what's success? you can go to school and get 59% on a test, you still fail.

you need to get above a certain mark. that number-one mark when it comes to america in the last four years was supposed to be economy. we had the lowest amount of workforce participation since the 1980s. unemployment is going down because people are jumping out of the workforce. that's not an encouraging sign. now we're talking abanother recession on the horizon. that's going to be the marker he's going to be measured by. although there have been successes, don't ask, done tell i believe was a good mark for him to put into place, i concur with that. but when you look at number-one thing he'll be measured by, it's the economy and he gets a failing mark. >> as an african-american woman out on her own and have gone through two years of unemployment, i really want to see someone who's going to be doing something to help with jobs, for women, for men, get those jobs out there. the way the policies are right now with the obama administration, they're not helping. they're really hurting. >> to answer your question, i think for those that have voted for him, i think he did a lot of things he said health do. now as a republican i purely

disagree with a lot of his stance, but he went and said what he was going to do. >> you disagree on this point. >> i think so. i think if you voted for him on what he ran on, i think he's tried to accomplish a lot of those things. i just disagree with a lot of the things he took. i don't know if i'd be disappointed if i supported him. he's done a lot of things he set out to do. >> i want to change gears quickly because there have been some issues on the table that have been hot. one is, i don't know if you heard about this, gay marriage. the president spoke about his support for marriage equal. where do you all stand on this issue? >> i stand firmly in my religion's belief that marriage is between a man and a woman, but there should be legal rights because it is somewhat of a civil rights issues for gays that want to marry. but for me, religioureligiously marriage is between a man and a woman. >> marsha, i think many people who identify as republican talk about moral issues. when they say that, it tends to

be abortion, stem cell research, and gay marriage. but what about poverty? that's an issue. crumbling schools. those seem to be moral issues as well. why is it that black folk tend to isolate these things as moral issues and not these other things and vote based on those? >> when you look at black church, it's very conservative. the values are the same that conservative republicans or conservative democrats, anyone would have. but i think what happens, and i'm a history major, look at where the black community was over a hundred years ago, and i think what happens in the 1930s, suddenly we got this i can get something for nothing, and that's when we start with the new deal. >> hmm. >> and that's the first republican switched over to be a democrat. >> gary, any truth to the idea black folks feel so beholden -- and i hear you saying this, too -- black folks feel so beholden to the rdemocratic

party, they won't vote republican? i's more of an education issue. we need to have a discussion, not have a party people look at as the old white male party. >> last question. do you ever feel disconnected from the community because you're a black republican? do you ever feel like you're less authentic because you're a black republican? >> not anymore. not. >> not anymore. >> not anymore. >> when did you get over it? >> i never had to get over it, but the black community got over my republican affiliation. i was able to show them that i'm here, i'm one of you, and i care. ignore the affiliation. look at my heart. >> last word. >> i've had the opposite delightful experience of being accepted, being a black republican. it's interesting in chicago, which is very politically charged and very democrat. i think folks like the idea i've been able to stand out, state the case, and they know me. they know that i have the same values that they do. we may vote different, but at the core, we believe in the same things, you know, and i've been willing to step out and say i

believe more strongly in this party, and i think people have accepted me for it. it's been pretty neat. >> i think having you all here has been pretty neat. it's been a great conversation. i wish you all the best of luck. thanks for being here. stay right there. back with more "our world with black enterprise." up next, he's a young inveinovator in a lane all his . [ male announcer we got a real mom

and the family car to do an experiment. we put a week of her family's smelly stuff all in at once to prove that febreze car vent clips could eliminate the odor. then we brought her family to our test facility to see if it worked. [ woman take a deep breath, tell me what you smell. something fresh. a beach. a clean house. my new car. [ woman go ahead and take your blindfolds off. oh!! hahahaha!!! look at all this garbage!!! [ male announcer febreze car. eliminates odors for continuous freshness, so you can breathe happy.

welcome back to "our world with black enterprise." being an engineer has its challenges, but for one man, knocking down a dozen obstacles is as easy as switching lanes. brian is our "slice of life." he isn't your average bowler, nor your average engineer. but ronald hicklin is successfully living his dream, doing both. it's the career he planned as a teenager. >> for my senior high school project, one of the things we had to do was say what are you going to do with your life when you graduate? i said, you know what, i want to design bowling balls. >> while every engineer wants to build a bert mouse trap, hicklin is building a better bowling ball. >> i've been chasing this my

entire life, basically. there's very few people that do what i do. only about four people design bowling balls. >> hicklin's designs are making an impact. >> the beautiful thing about bowling is is it's very -- it looks very simple, but by the same token it's very technical. outside the bowl is round, and you have three holes and you throw it down the lane. the inside is actually very technical. there's an inside piece called a core. it comes in different shapes, different sizes, different densities, and it continues to evolve as we continue to move forward with technology. >> i'm very impressed with ron hicklin. i think he's a wonderful engineer. he's got that really thoughtfulness. he's got that good creativity. he's always thinking of the positives, always thinking of the how this solution can help the corporation. >> in 2010, more than 71 million people bowled at least once that year. with only a little more than 2 million bowling competitively. >> there's two parts to bowling. there's really the sport side

and then more of the recreational side. the sport side of bowling is is where you're seeing a lot of decline. the recreational side is actually kind of seeing growth. >> hicklin's father introduced him to bowling. today father and son bowl together all the time. >> i'm really proud of him, you know, because at 13 he said he wanted to make bowling balls, and i remember back then, i said, oh, no, we ear not going to have you have an engineer degree to make bowling balls. he kept with his dream all the way through, you know, his passion. >> hicklin is proof that a career in science, technology, engineering, and math can be cool. >> i think it's fun in general. the people that are the richest in this country get it from science and technology more times than not, not from necessarily playing sports or those kind of other things. those are also high-profile and good, but i would tell you that it's a lot of fun to sit in my chair and be able to help design bowling balls that 60% of the world uses, having a positive effect on not only your community but also in the world in general.

>> we'll be right back. youa little healing every day.

the ultimate daily lotion -- new from gold bond. trust icy hot for powerful relief. [ male announcer the icy hot patch. goes on icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. so you're back to full speed. [ male announcer icy hot. power past pain. that wraps it up for this special edition of "our world with black enterprise" on location at the 17th annual black enterprise entrepreneurs conference. be sure to visit us on the web at blackenterprise.com/ourworld. follow us on twitter. thanks for watching. see you next week.